Tuesday, March 29, 2011

I haven't been posting as often as I used to, but that doesn't mean I've quit. I also haven't been working out with any regularity recently. I'm feeling mentally and physically drained recently. I've decided to take the week off from the draining workouts I've been doing and take it easy. I'm going to focus instead on my eating habits this week. I still struggle with that and I know controlling what I'm putting into my body is key to losing this stubborn weight around my middle.

Monday, March 21, 2011

I think that might be the first time I've done plyo in quite a while. There may have been a subconscious reason why that was a workout I didn't have time for. That bitch is tough. I struggled to say the least, but I put my hands on my knees, let the sweat drip off my face and pushed as hard as I could. Still plenty of room for improvement but a good starting workout for this reboot.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

I've had many more bad days than good days recently, and it's not hard to understand why. I've missed a day here, and a day there, on their own they don't seem to bad. But add them all up and now I'm pushing less weight and less reps and struggling just to get through workouts. I'm rededicating myself and getting back to work on this and on eating better. I've been lax on that as well recently eating out with friends and the what not.

So this is me putting me on notice. I had some nice results and now I'm losing them by getting lazy and being satisfied with what I've accomplished so far. No more!

Here's a picture from today. You can look back to day 1 to see the difference between the two. Marginal improvement. I'm pretty disappointed in myself. Time to use that and burn it as fuel. Reboot.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Yesterday was a great workout day where I accomplished some new feats and felt really great. Today was the exact opposite. I felt like crap from the moment I woke up, thanks Kara for eating a chicken bone so that I had to stay up all night and make sure you weren't choking it up or crapping blood, and my workout went rather poorly.

The good thing these ups and downs have been pretty common place throughout this whole process and I'm learning to stay pretty even keel over it.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Once again almost talked myself out of today's workout. It's been tough doing these workouts recently. I'm so glad I did yoga today though. I did moves today that I never thought I'd be able to do and that I've always struggled with. Crane and Wheel. When I got up in wheel today I was shocked, like "wow I just did that". It felt really great. I'm at about 1/3 of the way through this 90 day program so I thought I'd post weight and picture updates. The pics I got were taken by myself so they were pretty crappy, so I'll post pictures later tonight when Amanda gets home to take the pictures. My weight has been going all over the place the last couple of days, between 187 and 190. So the low I've hit is 187, I was at 197 when I started this program so that's a loss of 10 lbs in roughly 30 days. I was at 209/210 at Christmas so thats 22-23 lbs lost since then!

I'm actually more psyched about being able to do the new yoga moves then the weight loss numbers. I'm actually beginning to see how much stronger my body is in what I can accomplish athletically.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

I wasn't feeling well and did not workout yesterday. I still haven't had a significant bowel movement since I did that fruit fast over the weekend. I've forced out some little poos but I haven't had that "have to go" sensation yet. Which seems totally backward to me. I figured I'd have explosive diarrhea, or be "throwing mud" as my friend Jason calls it. I almost had myself talked out of doing today's workout as well, but I gave myself a virtual slap in the ass and got down stairs and did it.

Today's workout was bicep and back, so a lot of curls and pull ups. The way it targeted the biceps was really tough for me. I was struggling to get up any weight near the end, particularly with my left arm. The ab workout went really well though, I'm getting closer and closer to doing all of the moves in the workout. Now to enjoy a turkey sandwich on whole grain wheat bread w/ some lettuce and tomato and maybe some tomato soup as well.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Last day of the fruit fast, first day of the new phase. Today's workout was chest, triceps and shoulders. It targeted those muscles hard and I definitely felt it. Also I think I felt the fact that all I've eaten is fruit. No doubt my body is missing some protein etc. Felt a lot of fatigue, but I got through most of the workout. Eating some grapes now. Starting new lighter eating habits tomorrow. Already planning my meals. I think I'll have some oatmeal for breakfast and some hard boiled egg whites.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Not so hot of a workout today. My first time doing Core Synergistics. Half the time I'm not even sure if I'm doing the moves right, never been good at the whole pilates engage your core style workout. Had to watch alot of the moves before even trying them and most of them we did for 1 1/2 minutes to 3 minutes, needless to say I did not make it that long.

Not happy with today's workout, I have plenty to improve upon for the next time I do this routine.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

I feel so much better than I have the last few days after doing that workout. Kenpo X, kicking my ass and the asses of countless imaginary peoples and their stupid imaginary faces.

Also talked to my aunt, who is a super fit yoga lady. She's going to help me do a mini cleanse this weekend, I'm going to be dong a fruit fast and then start a lighter better diet afterwards. I am super excited to do this and get my eating habits improved. Thanks Aunt Shawn!

Had some crazy days there, between staying with my parents in Kenosha and driving back and forth to Milwaukee and huffing floor sealer fumes. I missed a couple of days of workouts but I'm back and ready to get to work. Today was my "off week" anyway. By off week I mean still hard but not as hard. I missed a yoga workout and a core workout, I'm just going to jump back in with Kenpo today. I felt really shitty the last couple of days that I didn't workout and can't wait to get back on the train!

Friday, March 4, 2011

My floors are finished! The finishing product is still drying and my house is all fumed up. I thought it was dispersed enough for me to workout in my basement today. I was wrong. I got lightheaded fast. I still have a headache from it. I didn't finish my workout and have decided to take tomorrow as a day off.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Today should be legs and back, but my house is having the floors redone and due to complications from that I was unable to do my workout today. So I took Saturday's off day today, that means tomorrow will be legs and back and Friday's workout which was Kenpo will be pushed to Saturday which was the off day.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

I really didn't do that great, but it feels nice to pretend I did. I am noticing an improvement in my balance postures and with how well I can keep up with the moving sections of the workout.

Been having to travel from Kenosha up to my house in Milwaukee to workout each day, we have vacated our home while the floors are being refinished. So far I'm two for two. Yet another easy excuse not to work out. I really feel like this is becoming a routine for me.

Monday, February 28, 2011

Day 16 is supposed to be plyo, but right now it's looking like it's going to be moving all of my furniture out of the living room and two bedrooms. Getting the wood floors refinished over the next three days and I need to have everything cleared out. Spent a couple hours this morning already running up and down stairs storing items in the basement and attic. When my brother gets here we're going to move the big things, couch, tv stand, dressers in the bedroom and the bed set. That might be my workout for the day, unless I decide later that I can do more. Right now I'm already feeling pooped though.

Sunday, February 27, 2011

I have had my ass kicked by quite a few workouts during the past 2 weeks. Today I got my ass kicked again, but it wasn't the workout that kicked my ass it was me. I pushed myself hard today, did way more push-ups and pull-ups than I ever had. I was exhausted when the workout was done. One problem, I still had ab ripper to do. I didn't have a good ab workout physically as far as number of exercises done, but it was a really good workout mentally. I was mentally and physically spent and had problems even sitting up let alone doing core work. I wanted to quit so many times, but I didn't which I'm very happy about. I kept trying to get up and do more and took breaks as needed.

Day 14 was yesterday, Saturday. I had wanted to do some light cardio. The amount of tightness and weakness in my calves and rear end that I was still experiencing from my leg workout Thursday kind of surprised me. Also I think I broke my foot on Thanksgiving day playing football, it got stepped on a couple of times and was all black and blue. After my Kenpo workout on Friday I felt pain in my foot again in the same spot. It feels like there is a line going right down the middle of my foot. Won't be a problem today for chest and back and I'll see how it holds up for plyo tomorrow.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

So yesterday sucked. I mention it again because in the past a bad workout like that has led to me taking more days off or quitting the workout all together. And honestly I was tempted. I had a terrible craving for some candy and soda yesterday, I didn't give in and I'm really glad I didn't today. I did have a couple of vitamin waters and some pork rinds as my unhealthy snack. Vitamin water has sugar and a bunch of calories in it, much less than soda so that's how I justified it. Pork rinds are full of sodium but low on fat and also have a good amount of protein in them, so that's how I justified that snack. Not the best of ideas but better than the candy bars and soda I was really craving.

This morning I had a friend coming over first thing in the morning to help me around the house, I normally work out first thing in the morning. Another convenient excuse I would have used in the past to not workout.

I am happy to say that not only did I work out but I had one of my best workouts to date. The leg and back portion went well, I managed to pull 5 chin ups on one set, my best so far. And when it came to the ab workout I whimpered and grunted and even groaned but I did my best to keep up. On the DVD they do 25 reps of each exercise, I did about 15-25 on each one. A big improvement, also did better at working to the burn and then pushing it a bit more to get a few more reps. Once the stomach would clench up and not move any more was when I'd have to stop though.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

I've really been feeling beat up mentally/physically and emotionally the last week or so. Stress in my life is making it hard to start workouts or do work around the house. Other days my workout is a great way to relieve my stress, pumping weight or push-ups don't take too much mental strength. Yoga however takes a lot of mental strength to do, with all the distractions in my life right now my workout was going very poorly and I couldn't focus. I decided to stop part way through, I'm going to take the day to rest my body some. To make up for it I will make sure I do something on my next off day on Saturday, either a long walk with the dog or a nice jog, something that wont beat my body up but will get my heart rate up a bit.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

My best workout so far by a long shot. I moved up some weights, particularly on the shoulder exercises. I did the bonus moves, all of them. And I pushed it on the ab workout.

On the abs I'm doing a good job of working to the burn, I need to start pushing through it more. It's hard to do when you're all alone working out in your basement. I'm developing mental strength to go with my physical strength, just need to develop a bit more 'want to' so I can really get some results!

Monday, February 21, 2011

Plyo kicked my ass again! It's called the mother of all P90x routines for a reason I guess. Modify, modify, modify... that was the name of my game today. I got through the whole routine with some modifications and tried the bonus round. I was just too spent to finish the bonus routine.

Getting that endorphin high right now, hopefully that can fuel me through the shoveling of snow/slush/ice-crap that I have to get off my walk. Living on a corner lot rocks!

Sunday, February 20, 2011

I kicked every bit of ass I wanted to on the chest/back portion of the workout. I took mini set breaks and really pushed for more reps of every exercise. Pull ups are still hard, I'm only able to get 2 or 3 pullups w/out using a chair for help. I'm really working on modifying the exercises less and less, which is making them harder on myself but is going to help me get the best results.

My ab workout was not as good, my body was physically exhausted from doing the other portion of the workout so hard. As I get stronger I'll be able to perform better on all parts of the workouts.

Push ups alone aren't hard enough for me, I need to have a Husky attack me while I work out... that's how ninjas do it!

Saturday was my off day and I enjoyed the hell out of it. Still some lingering aches from the first week of workouts, including my booty. Today I'm starting Week 2, same workouts as last week. This week it's all about pushing it and seeing what I can do!

Friday, February 18, 2011

I was a whiny baby this morning and totally wanted to punk out and not do this workout. But, I knew I had to post my blog entry and I knew people would notice if I skipped a day so I got my sorry ass out of bed and did my workout.

Kenpo, yoga and plyo are the three non weight lifting workouts in this routine and I think people assume they're easy. Most definitely not. Do 10 minutes of plyo and you'll know how tough that is, I went into great detail about my thoughts on yoga on Wednesday. Kenpo is fun but it also kicks your ass. Your arms and legs begin to feel like lead weights and kicking/punching shadow people around you gets tough.

Tomorrow is my off day. I think I'll take Kara for a walk and might throw a football around for an hour or so. Some easy activities that won't be too taxing as I gear up for week 2!

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Unfortunately I had some quit in me today. I'm being a little easy on myself since its the first week and these are hard workouts. Felt a little weak in the stomach, low on energy and light headed. Stopped the workout a few minutes early. Again I'm willing to let it slide this week but next week I expect to do all of the workouts 100%.

Kenpo karate tomorrow and then off day on Saturday. Jada wants me to do a triathlon with her in June. I'm strongly considering it. I would finish P90x in early May, so I would be in pretty good shape at that time and I would have 1 month to get ready for the triathlon, building swimming/biking/running endurance. Also it would give me something to work for... what do you think?

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Anyone who tells you yoga isn't hard or that it doesn't work their body is a liar or hasn't done it. I think it has this misconception as a woman's workout, but let me tell you of all the workouts I do for P90x yoga is by far the hardest. It takes a lot of physical strength as well as flexibility and it takes mental strength more so than the other things. I find myself wanting to come out of moves or stop early in yoga all the time, doing yoga will make you physically and mentally stronger as well as more flexible.

Don't knock it until you try it.

That being said yoga has once again kicked my ass, a ton of room for improvement next week.

Also I've been super gassy all morning, I think the change in diet may be catching up to my body, internally at least.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Worked on those guns today! Need to have some ripped arms so I can walk around in sleeveless shirts all day and flex as I point to things.

"The library is that way ladies!"

Had a ton more energy today... although I'm feeling a little light headed and woozy today. Gotta drink my protein drink that according to the label helps to rebuild muscles.

Also did abs today, I do them every day there is lifting, Ab Ripper makes me cry a little bit. Wasn't able to finish the ab portion today, I'll try to do better on Thursday. Tomorrow is by far the hardest workout day of the week. YOGA. That shit is hard.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Today did not go well at all! I definitely did not eat enough yesterday. I was so worried about eating right and not wanting to put fatty gross foods in my body that I didn't put enough good food in me either. I just felt drained doing the workout right from the start and had no go in me at all. I did close to 30 mins of the 60 min workout and feel absolutely destroyed. I'm drinking a protein/muscle recovery drink and eating a banana as we speak to try to refuel a little better for tomorrow. Feeling super light headed, going to shower and laze about for a little while before I drive down to Kenosha to attend a Valentine's party for the 1st graders I student taught.
(Kenosha showed up in the spell check by the way, I love that I grew up in a city that is considered a fable by most!)

As the name of the blog would imply, Ninjas aren't fat. Unfortunately I am. Starting today that is going to change. I have just under three months until my daughter is born and I need to get myself in much better shape.

Making the changes necessary is easy enough, starting a workout regimen, changing the diet, all of that is easy to start. Its hard to finish. Day 1 of P90x is today, Day 30 will be March 14th, Day 60 will be April 13th and Day 90 will be May 13th. On each of these days I will post new pictures and new weights.

Yes, including today. That means I have to post some upsettingly large weight number and pictures of a chubby, flabby, pasty me.

I'm hoping my friends will follow this blog and keep up to date with how I'm progressing, I need that fear of ridicule should I fail to motivate me to do my workouts everyday!

First bit of good news! I got a nice surprise when I weighted myself the first time. After the holidays I topped out at 209 lbs. I did some working out and made some diet changes for a while and lost 12 lbs, getting back down to 197! I expected that since I hadn't worked out in nearly a month and had been eating like a human garbage disposal I would have gained some more weight and be back in the 200's, but I'm still at 197!

Starting weight: 197 lbs.
Goal Weight: At 5'8'' ideal weight is 125-158lbs. Anything over 158 being overweight. I don't want to be overweight anymore so my goal is to get under 158lbs.

And here are the pictures. Hide the children and don't eat at least 20 minutes before viewing these images. I'm fat and pasty (it's winter in Wisconsin of course I'm pasty!).